by Eric Vall
My heart sank a little hearing about the little boy’s parents, since it was a reminder my monster had also killed Nia’s brother, but I pushed the intrusive thought to the side.
“There’s still a lot to be done,” Layla continued, “but I know as long as they continue the work they were doing when we left, they’d be on their way to rebuilding in no time.”
I nodded and managed a bit of a smile.
“Sounds like it was relatively productive,” I whispered.
“It was,” Layla agreed, “and I know Almasy was able to salvage quite a bit of the reading material, too. Sleet wanted to reproduce some of the works so there are more in circulation in different locations, but mostly I think he wanted it for his own research.”
Ah, I knew it was only a matter of time before Sleet came into this. I wasn’t mad at him or anything. I knew he was having his arm twisted by the council, or rather, by Miriam Sharpay, who seemed to have more of an interest in taking Sleet’s job from him than rebuilding the Enclave that was just decimated because she refused to listen to the man whose job she wanted.
It was complicated.
“What the hell does that dragon lady want, anyway?” I grumbled. “She’s either so old and senile she can’t discern priorities, in which case she shouldn’t be running anything, or she’s insane, in which case she shouldn’t be running anything.”
“Basically, she’d be better of as a vegetable?” Layla asked with a snort.
“Pretty much, and not even a good vegetable,” I replied. “She’d be something gross, like a beet.”
“Ew,” Layla stifled a giggle in my chest, then yawned.
“I don’t know what to expect at this point,” I said, then yawned as well.
Damn those infectious yawns.
“Don’t put too much stock in it for now,” Layla murmured as her eyes slid shut. “Just sleep. The answer might come to you in your dreams.”
I almost laughed at such a silly notion, but between her and Erin, maybe they were onto something.
I just had to wait.
I drifted off to sleep, and my dreams were filled with vague shadows and the eerily familiar song that had haunted me since the Bathi Highlands.
Sometime later, screams filled the hallways, and the sound of banging jarred me out of a deep sleep. At the same time, Layla, Braden, and I bolted upright in our beds and looked at one another. Without a second thought, Braden and I leapt out of bed and stood guard over Layla as she threw her skirt and top back on. I grabbed my crystals and threw on my pants, and all the while I felt the vibrations from students’ bedroom doors being kicked open.
So much for catching up on my sleep and classes.
“Don’t just stand there!” I heard a familiar voice yell. “Find me those ciphers!”
“No … ” Braden shook his head and backed away as Antoine’s voice echoed down the hall.
“Damn it! He followed us!” I growled angrily. “Layla, grab the ciphers and books from my bag. Don’t let it go no matter what.”
Layla did so, and she clutched the bag to her chest as tightly as she could. “Who are they?” she asked, and there was a slight tremble to her voice.
“Bounty Hunters,” Braden answered roughly.
“What the hell?” Layla’s eyes flew wide. She knew from the stories how awful they were, and she stood incredulously. “How the hell did they get past the wards?”
“Now is not the time for questions,” I said quickly, even though I had been wondering that myself. “We have to get to Sleet. Now.”
“How?” Braden questioned.
“And why?” Layla followed up.
“Didn’t I say not now?” I repeated impatiently.
Antoine’s henchmen weren’t far off. I could hear their footsteps growing closer and closer. If we were going to make it out, we only had one shot.
“Stay behind me,” I told Layla, and she quickly came and shielded herself. I then motioned for Braden to stand on the other side of the door.
The footsteps stopped outside of our door. Then there was a brief pause, followed by a loud thud against it. The distinct sound of a body being dragged reached my ears before someone knocked at the door.
“We have to go! Come on!” Varleth’s voice called from the other side.
“Varleth?” I asked, but before he could answer, I threw the door open. At the same time, on the other side, Orenn had picked up one of the henchmen by the collar and tossed him down to the ground so hard I heard his bones break. I managed not to wince, but damn, that sounded painful.
“What the hell is going on?” I asked them as Gawain skidded around the corner to join us.
“They’re after the ciphers,” Varleth panted. “We have to get them somewhere safe.”
“We only have the one we found in the Narufey,” I told him.
“Where are the others?” he asked, worried.
“They’re with Sleet,” Braden responded for me. “That’s why you wanted to get to him.”
I nodded. “We have to move fast,” I told them.
“More like we have to not get caught,” Gawain cut in.
“Let’s do both,” Varleth interjected, and before anyone could argue, he was off running again.
“You heard him, let’s move.” Orenn grinned like a madman, and I couldn’t help but think he was having way too much fun taking out the bounty hunters.
Good for him.
Orenn ran out in front of Varleth to take the lead with Braden trailing not far behind him. Layla and I stuck toward the middle while Gawain took up the rear with his gun.
We somehow managed to avoid a lot of the chaos until we had gotten to the fork where the boys’ dorms split off from the girls’. There were eight henchmen guarding the exit, two in front of our hallway, two in the girls’, and four guarding the exit doors, two on each side.
“What now?” Layla asked, but it wasn’t long before us boys knew what we needed to do.
Orenn smirked, lunged forward, and bashed two henchmen’s heads together. It knocked them silly, and they stumbled over themselves as they shook the dizziness from their heads, but it only lasted for a brief moment before they turned to retaliate. Orenn and Braden were ready, though, and they thrust their legs out with simultaneous powerful kicks that landed square in the middle of the bounty hunters’ stomachs. The two men flew backward and were knocked onto their asses. Varleth and I jumped into the fray and knocked both of them out cold with a hard hook to the face, but we were too late.
We had already alerted the other mercenaries.
The two mercenaries on the inside of the exit door charged us with spears, which was new as I was fairly certain they hadn’t had weapons the first time we fought them. Or if they did, they weren’t long pointy sticks. One of them lunged at me, as I was the closest target, but a pop and a gust of wind blew him hard against the wall, where he immediately fell unconscious.
I looked over my shoulder to see Gawain’s gun in his hand. He must have shot the guy with a wind magic bullet.
The other door guard went for me as well, and I rolled quickly out of the way before he could get his spear anywhere near me. I tripped him up by kicking his feet out from under him, and he landed with a flop onto the tiled floor.
Braden, however, finished him off with a swift kick in the head, and the guy’s neck fell limp with a sickening kick. Braden stood over the body with little to no remorse, and I could understand. No one said anything about the man being dead, though, and we all turned our attention to the guards blocking the girls’ dormitory.
We all stepped up and readied ourselves to fight, but there was no need. Seemingly out of nowhere, both guards collapsed without a peep. As they fell, they revealed the source of what had happened to them.
Nia, Erin, and Cyra stood on the other side, and Erin’s eyes glowed bright pink before they returned back to normal.
The rest of us stared at her for a moment, completely dumbstruck.
“What was that?” I fin
ally asked after I got over my initial shock.
“A sleep spell,” Erin supplied. “Nicked it from a first year girl as we were running by.”
“Wow. Okay.” I nodded, impressed.
“We have no time to waste.” Nia came out from around Erin. “We have to get to the Headmaster before Antoine does.”
“Right,” I said as Orenn made sure to take the lead again. At the same time, Nia and Orenn both opened the doors to the outside, which alerted those guards.
They grunted and pointed at us as they screamed. “Get the--”
They were cut off by two ice bullets as Gawain’s shots pierced their chests. One by one, he picked them off, felling them as quickly as they came. Within seconds, our path was laid bare while icicles grew from their bodies as a result of the magic.
“You’re pretty handy with that thing.” I smirked, and Gawain rolled his eyes before we took off at a run to get into the main hall. I didn’t miss the color that rose on his cheeks with the compliment, though.
A bright moon hung in the dark sky overhead. It hadn’t felt like I’d been asleep longer than a few hours, but apparently I’d missed an entire meal and the whole evening.
We crossed the courtyard without any more altercations, and as we made it into the main hall, we found it was eerily quiet. There were no guards, no teachers, nothing. It was like we’d walked into a graveyard, and a chill raced up my spine.
“It’s spooky,” Layla commented as she huddled close to Nia.
“Do you think anyone is even here?” Orenn asked as he looked around. There were still no signs of life, even as we passed the dining hall.
“We’re only here for Sleet,” I said. “They’re after the ciphers, and we all know who’s holding the majority of them.”
Our feet padded across the polished floors as we turned corners and kept our eyes peeled for any signs of activity. We kept together, though, because in a situation like this, there was safety in numbers, and we were some of the most powerful mages in this academy.
No one could win against us if we stuck together.
When we reached the stairs up to Sleet’s office, it didn’t feel like torture for once. My heart pounded against my chest and raced faster than my legs could carry me.
No sooner had we reached the top of the spiral staircase were we silenced by Orenn outside the door. I pushed my way to the top to stand beside him, and then I pressed my ear to the door. I couldn’t make out anything being said, but I recognized the voice to be Antoine’s. He and Sleet were conversing about something, obviously, but there was a third voice, another one I recognized.
That voice, however, wasn’t just talking, it was begging, and I was able to hear the distinct ‘please’ being cried before there was a loud thump against the door. Blood seeped out from beneath it, and I saw Cyra clamp a hand over Layla’s mouth to keep her from screaming.
“Gryff?” Varleth whispered, and as Orenn and I glanced at one another, we realized we all knew who the third voice was.
“It’s Petyr,” I said slowly, quietly. “He’s dead.”
Chapter 13
My mouth went dry as Petyr’s blood ran across my bare feet and between my toes. I bit my lip to keep from getting emotional, and everyone else either did the same or turned away completely. I couldn’t blame them. This … this was hard, and it only made me fear even more what was happening on the other side of the door.
I tried to keep my composure as best as possible, but as soon as I heard Arwyn’s voice on the other side of the door, I lost it. I didn’t have to hear what she said, but I knew that voice. I would know it in my sleep, on my deathbed, anywhere.
Orenn must have sensed my urgency to get inside, because suddenly his arm was covered in metal, and he had reared back to punch in the lock on the wooden door. The lock shattered, and I felt a sick twist in my stomach when Petyr’s limp body slid across his own blood as we opened the door.
Arwyn and Almasy stood outside of the lift, Arwyn with her sword in hand, and Almasy with a trident he’d literally crafted right then and there with his earth elemental magic.
Antoine pressed an unconscious Sleet against the floor, and his muddy boot was clamped atop Sleet’s head like a vice. Dark tendrils like the ones I’d had around my neck in the Narufey were cuffed around his wrists, and I took notice that the lightning on the Headmaster’s fingertips was being absorbed by the dark magic keeping him captive.
“I knew you’d come, Gryff of Njordenfalls,” Antoine drawled, “and just in time, too.”
“Let him go,” I growled as my friends and I all entered the Headmaster’s office.
“Really?” Antoine scoffed and rolled his eyes. “After all the time we spent together, that’s the best you can do? A growl?”
I set my jaw firmly as I glared proverbial holes into Antoine’s chest. If there had been any signs of him having sustained any damage in our last altercation, they weren’t visible. In fact, he looked even better than ever. Was that a side effect of being an animandu and sucking out the souls of the living? Was that what he was ultimately planning to do to Sleet?
Whatever his plan was, I wasn’t going to just sit here and let it happen. My fingers twitched and inched toward my crystals, but as I lay my hand on the bandolier, Antoine spoke again.
“Don’t bother with those,” he told me. “If you really want to put on a show, you’ll hand over all of the ciphers you’ve collected and beg for this man’s life.”
“What do you want with the ciphers?” I asked. “You could have taken the one from the library in the woods, but you chose not to. Why?”
Antoine lowered a look at me that sent unpleasant chills down my spine. Then he clicked his tongue in that condescending way parents did to their children as he pretended to be interested in the back of his hand.
“Why would I seek them out myself when I have you to do the leg work for me?” he asked as though his question was the most obvious in the world. “My interests are simple, though. I accept work from someone who puts me in direct contact with you, the one I want to kill, I get them what they want, and I reap the benefits. It’s a glorious cycle, is it not?”
I kept my face impassive as I thought through what the asshole just said. Someone who had direct contact with me?
“Who?” I demanded, even though I guessed the council was ultimately behind this. “Who are you working for?”
“Why would I tell you?” Antoine laughed. “You’d have to pay a pretty steep price for the information you want out of me. Maybe we can work out a deal? I’ll tell you my employer, you give me all of the ciphers.”
I laughed, and the man’s eyes opened large with surprise.
“Not a chance,” I snorted. “You think just because you have a hostage means you get to make demands?”
Antoine blinked and stared at me blankly.
“Yes, that’s usually how this sort of thing goes,” he replied in an unimpressed voice.
“Not this time, darling,” I mocked. “This time, you’re severely outnumbered. Eleven to one, if my math is correct.”
“Do you mean to tell me that you would rather risk this man’s life, the one who gave you everything you have here today, just to save some precious stones with letters on them?” Antoine’s tone was aghast as he gripped the front of Sleet’s robes and shook him forcefully.
I gritted my teeth as I locked eyes with Sleet. I had expected him to look fearful, but there was nothing that hinted at any such emotion in his expression. What was there, however, was calm, accepting, and the complete opposite of how I was feeling on the inside. I was scared out of my mind, but I wasn’t going to let a twerp like Antoine know that.
“I told you,” I repeated, “we don’t have the ciphers. You’re barking up the wrong tree.”
Antoine raised his other hand and began to ruminate a spell in his palm. It sparked and crackled like lightning, and I could feel the static start to fill the room as he absorbed more energy around him. I thought it ironic he woul
d use lightning magic against Marangur ‘Stormbringer’ Sleet, but I kept that to myself.
From the corner of my eye, I saw the faintest shift in movement to my left, though I didn’t think it was enough for Antoine to notice. I took a deep breath as I realized Gawain had his gun positioned so it just looked holstered at his side, and his fingers itched toward the trigger.
Normally, I would have wondered why he didn’t just use his magic, or why any of us didn’t just throw down, but we all knew the risks. If we moved too brashly, it could cost Sleet his life, and Gawain’s gun had proven in the past to be faster in dire instances.
“Don’t do this,” I pleaded with Antoine in the hopes to stall for a bit more time. “Whoever you’re working for isn’t going to use the ciphers for good.”
“I don’t care what they do,” Antoine sneered, “and frankly, I don’t need an education on it, so just hand them over!” The more frantic he got, the more erratic and uneven his voice became. His cool, suave demeanor was crumbling before our eyes.
I just needed to push him over the edge.
“No,” I replied calmly and quietly. “No, you ugly asshole. Fuck off. We aren’t giving you--”
“Give them to me, Gryff!” Antoine demanded loudly. His hands shook, and his eyes started to turn white with the energy surging through his body.
I couldn’t see my friends, but I could feel their gazes on Antoine and I as they nervously watched the scene unfold. All I needed to see was the ever so slight nod from Gawain to signal he had a shot lined up.
After what seemed like hours, but was only a few seconds, he took a deep breath and tipped his head forward.
Then there was a sharp, sudden bang as Gawain pulled the trigger, and a bullet engulfed in flames rocketed through the air. It clipped Antoine in the shoulder, and then a second one nailed his torso. The shots weren’t greatly aimed, but under the circumstances, I just wanted Antoine far enough away from Sleet to get him to safety.
None of us could have predicted Gawain’s fire would interact with the spell in Antoine’s palm, though. The energy from the flames was absorbed into Antoine’s hand, and it was just enough to send the spell into a radical state as it ruptured.
